ui-spacer missing after importing a flow that contains ui-spacers when exported

[dudleyjosh]

Current Behavior

It seems as though the ui-spacer is not exported when exporting a flow. I checked this by searching through the flows.json file after exporting a dashboard flow containing multiple ui-spacers and the exported flow file has no ui-spacer references.

Expected Behavior

The ui-spacer elements should be exported with the flow so that the dashboard layout is as expected when it is imported into a new Node-RED instance.

Steps To Reproduce

No response

Environment

• Dashboard version: 1.30.2
• Node-RED version: 4.1.5
• Node.js version: 22.11.0
• npm version: 10.9.0
• Platform/OS: macOS 26.2
• Browser: Chrome 144.0.7559.133

Have you provided an initial effort estimate for this issue?

I have provided an initial effort estimate

[colinl]

I think the issue may be that since you are exporting just a selection of ui nodes, how can the code know which spacers you want?

[dudleyjosh]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean regarding "exporting just a selection of ui nodes" but in my case, I was exporting an entire flow using the "current flow" option of the Node-RED export nodes window... and in my case this one flow contains all of the dashboard elements within this particular Node-RED instance.

[colinl]

I was exporting an entire flow using the "current flow" option of the Node-RED export nodes window... and in my case this one flow contains all of the dashboard elements within this particular Node-RED instance.

A dashboard group can be spread across multiple editor tabs (flows), and similarly an editor tab could contain widgets from multiple groups, so the logic to work out which spacers to include might be complex and fragile. Also the export code is in the core of node red and does not know anything about the dashboard nodes specifically. I think the dashboard nodes would have to have a way of linking the widgets to any preceding spacers. I don't know whether the original dashboard solved this problem.

[prpr19xx]

I was exporting an entire flow using the "current flow" option of the Node-RED export nodes window... and in my case this one flow contains all of the dashboard elements within this particular Node-RED instance.

A spacer node doesn't exist on the "current flow" that you are exporting, or an any flow for that matter. If it did, you would see it in the editor tab, but you don't.
It is irrelevant whether the flow contains all the other elements on the dashboard or not.
One flow can feed multiple dashboards; multiple flows can feed one dashboard; or any other combination.